7.16.2012

Horsebladder

Horsebladder's Elaine Khan charmed RSTB with her Night People tape out late last year and with a whisper she's released a proper follow-up in the form of the creeping, haunted Not I'll Not. The album is more vocal heavy than the previous work, which reminded us a bit of Julianna Barwick's cyclical incantations. Here she's replaced some of the innocent atmospheres with much starker, foreboding ones. The album feels trapped between planes of existence, and not always comfortably. It’s an ethereal, growling specter that claws when provoked. Its the sound of a force unsettled and Kahn uses an arsenal of drums, keys, rattles and her own gorgeous/frightening howl to pass the feeling onto any listeners close enough to absorb it.